Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 10161 on Future of Women's Football Review, whether she plans to chair all further meetings of the implementation group.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State will chair the first meeting of the implementation group in March and future meetings will be chaired by either the Secretary of State or Minister for Sport.
The implementation group will include key decision-makers from the organisations with responsibility for taking forward the Review recommendations. These organisations are the FA, NewCo, Football Foundation, Sport England, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the EFL, the Department for Education and the Premier League. The Secretary of State will be writing to senior representatives to formally invite them to the first meeting in March.
As set out in the Review, these representatives will be required to provide updates at the implementation group. DCMS will convene the group and will provide a secretariat function to make sure stakeholders are progressing with the recommendations, and we will monitor this accordingly.
We remain committed to hosting the initial implementation group meetings in March and July 2024. We will work collaboratively with stakeholders to assess the frequency of the future implementation group meetings.
We will continue to keep Ministers, Parliament and the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee updated on progress.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 10161 on Future of Women's Football Review, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the (a) transparency and (b) accountability arrangements for the implementation group in the context of its reporting to (i) Ministers, (ii) Parliament and (iii) the Culture Media and Sports Select Committee.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State will chair the first meeting of the implementation group in March and future meetings will be chaired by either the Secretary of State or Minister for Sport.
The implementation group will include key decision-makers from the organisations with responsibility for taking forward the Review recommendations. These organisations are the FA, NewCo, Football Foundation, Sport England, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the EFL, the Department for Education and the Premier League. The Secretary of State will be writing to senior representatives to formally invite them to the first meeting in March.
As set out in the Review, these representatives will be required to provide updates at the implementation group. DCMS will convene the group and will provide a secretariat function to make sure stakeholders are progressing with the recommendations, and we will monitor this accordingly.
We remain committed to hosting the initial implementation group meetings in March and July 2024. We will work collaboratively with stakeholders to assess the frequency of the future implementation group meetings.
We will continue to keep Ministers, Parliament and the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee updated on progress.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 10161 on Future of Women's Football Review, if she will list who has (a) been invited and (b) accepted invitations to join the implementation group.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State will chair the first meeting of the implementation group in March and future meetings will be chaired by either the Secretary of State or Minister for Sport.
The implementation group will include key decision-makers from the organisations with responsibility for taking forward the Review recommendations. These organisations are the FA, NewCo, Football Foundation, Sport England, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the EFL, the Department for Education and the Premier League. The Secretary of State will be writing to senior representatives to formally invite them to the first meeting in March.
As set out in the Review, these representatives will be required to provide updates at the implementation group. DCMS will convene the group and will provide a secretariat function to make sure stakeholders are progressing with the recommendations, and we will monitor this accordingly.
We remain committed to hosting the initial implementation group meetings in March and July 2024. We will work collaboratively with stakeholders to assess the frequency of the future implementation group meetings.
We will continue to keep Ministers, Parliament and the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee updated on progress.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2024 to Question 10161 on Future of Women's Football Review, if she will list all future meeting dates of the implementation group.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Secretary of State will chair the first meeting of the implementation group in March and future meetings will be chaired by either the Secretary of State or Minister for Sport.
The implementation group will include key decision-makers from the organisations with responsibility for taking forward the Review recommendations. These organisations are the FA, NewCo, Football Foundation, Sport England, the Sports Ground Safety Authority, the EFL, the Department for Education and the Premier League. The Secretary of State will be writing to senior representatives to formally invite them to the first meeting in March.
As set out in the Review, these representatives will be required to provide updates at the implementation group. DCMS will convene the group and will provide a secretariat function to make sure stakeholders are progressing with the recommendations, and we will monitor this accordingly.
We remain committed to hosting the initial implementation group meetings in March and July 2024. We will work collaboratively with stakeholders to assess the frequency of the future implementation group meetings.
We will continue to keep Ministers, Parliament and the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee updated on progress.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding his Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Most of the systems within Cabinet Office operate on the basis of updates being provided within the licence costs. As such there is no specific budget or spend for updates.
The Cabinet Office employs the Legacy IT Assessment Risk Framework, a standardised methodology designed by the Central Digital and Data Office, to assess the risks associated with legacy digital technology assets across His Majesty's Government. The highest category of risk within the framework is known as ‘red-rated’. This approach enables the Cabinet Office to generate a prioritised overview of our legacy technology, clearly highlighting assets that necessitate remediation plans and the allocation of suitable funding for implementation.
Where we have allocated funding to develop, sustain or migrate legacy systems of our Red Rated Systems we have:
Budgeted £21,405,400 over the last three years and;
Spending within that timeframe has been consistent with the budget.
In addition, the Cabinet Office is currently refining its approach to the definition and management of Legacy Systems.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, which listed places of worship in (a) the North East and (b) Sunderland received funding since 2019; and how much each received.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme was established to provide grants towards VAT paid on repairs and maintenance to the nation's listed places or worship. Through this grant scheme, 829 awards have been issued to places of worship in the North East of England since 2019, amounting to a total of £3,532,709. In Sunderland, 39 awards have been issued to places of worship since 2019, amounting to a total of £663,885.
A dataset showing a full list of grant scheme recipients since August 2022 is available here on gov.uk: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/nearly-5000-churches-across-the-united-kingdom-benefit-from-42-million-conservation-fund.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government response to independent review: reframing the opportunity in women’s football, published on 4 December 2023, what powers the implementation group of stakeholders announced in the Government’s response to the Carney Review will have to hold (a) the FA, (b) NewCo and (c) the Government to account; and how the implementation group will publish its findings.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government supports the recommendations set out in the Review of Women's Football, and believes that these must be acted on as a priority to ensure that we build on the unprecedented successes of recent years, and maximise the potential of the women’s game.
The implementation group will include key decision-makers from organisations with responsibility for taking forward the recommendations set out in the Review. Implementation group members will be mutually accountable for delivery of the recommendations, with members providing updates on how they are addressing the recommendations.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department's policy is on how the independent regulator of football will interact with the newly formed women’s elite football NewCo.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Karen Carney’s independent review into women’s football recommended that the women’s game should be given the opportunity to self-regulate rather than moving immediately to independent statutory regulation. The Government agrees with that recommendation, as set out in our response to the Review.
The independent regulator for English football will be focused on the top five tiers of the men’s game. Where appropriate, it will cooperate, coordinate and share information with the relevant industry bodies in the women’s game to help deliver the shared goal of a successful, sustainable English game.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, with reference to the Government response to independent review: reframing the opportunity in women’s football, published on 4 December 2023, if she will list the names of the people who have (a) been invited to join (b) accepted a place on the implementation group.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The implementation group will include key-decision makers across industry with responsibility for taking forward the Reviews recommendations. We are working at pace with industry to confirm who will sit on the implementation group.
Asked by: Julie Elliott (Labour - Sunderland Central)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what information her Department holds on the number of (a) girls and (b) boys who play (i) football and (ii) other sports at (A) primary and (B) secondary school.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The department does not routinely collect data about which sports pupils participate in during the school day. It is up to schools to decide which sports they offer, so that they can meet the needs of their pupils. Factors influencing which sports schools may offer include the space and equipment available.
The department asked what types of sports were available to Year 7 to Year 11 pupils in the Parent, Pupil and Learner Panel, covering the 2021/22 academic year. Girls reported that they were less likely to have football, basketball, cricket and rugby available to them during PE lessons in comparison to boys. By contrast, girls did report that they were more likely to have rounders, netball, badminton, dance, gymnastics and volleyball available to them. Further information can be accessed at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/parent-pupil-and-learner-panel-omnibus-surveys-for-2021-to-2022. Schools can and do separate sporting experiences for boys and girls on the grounds of safety and fairness, but they should take the time to reflect on how this affects girls and boys accessing the same sports equally.
The Active Lives Children and Young People Survey data for the 2022/23 academic year was published by Sport England on 7 December 2023 and shows a significant increase of 4 percentage points of girls in Years 1-11 playing football over the last week compared to the baseline data collected in the 2017/18 academic year. This data is accessible at: https://sportengland-production-files.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2023-12/Active%20Lives%20Children%20and%20Young%20People%20Survey%20-%20academic%20year%202022-23%20report.pdf?VersionId=3N7GGWZMKy88UPsGfnJVUZkaTklLwB_.
On 8 March 2023, the department announced over £600 million in for the primary PE and sport premium in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 academic years, and £57 million up to March 2025 for the Opening School Facilities programme. Schools can use this funding to increase their sport provision, raise overall quality of PE and improve the opportunities for all boys and girls to access sports.
In July 2023, the government published the School Sport and Activity Action Plan, which set out the expectation for schools to provide girls and boys with the same access and opportunity to play sports in PE and wider school sport. To encourage this, the government has overseen a change to the School Games Mark, which is delivered by the Youth Sport Trust. From September 2023, schools must demonstrate how they are overcoming gender barriers faced by girls and boys in PE and wider school sport as part of their planning and delivery.